How Kelli Giddish Returned to ‘Law and Order: SVU’ in Season 26

Kelli Giddish returned once again to “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” after departing the show as a series regular in 2022.

In the third episode of Season 26, titled “Divide & Conquer,” her character, Detective Amanda Rollins, comes back into the fold — and has a heartwarming reunion with her former partner, Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay).

In Season 24 of the NBC procedural, Rollins married ADA Dominick Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino) and resigned from the Special Victims Unit to accept a teaching position at Fordham University. She returned as a guest star in a later episode of Season 24 and in two episodes in Season 25.

Coming back for Season 26, Rollins is now working as a sergeant for the NYPD Intelligence Bureau.

“Sergeant!” Benson says as she and Rollins embrace in the hallway. “Your first city-wide briefing in the intelligence division, huh?”

“Captain,” Rollins says sweetly. “Yeah, last time I was at one of these things was with you.”

Rollins then introduces Benson to her new partner, Detective Corgan, played by John Clarence Stewart. Benson asks Rollins how she’s liking the new gig.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I love it,” Rollins says. “It’s like getting to eavesdrop on the whole world. And I want to thank you for putting in a word for me and for steering me in the right direction. I missed my family with all these long hours and, before this, I missed who I was even more.”

Benson replies proudly, “It is so good to see this version of you again.”

In an interview ahead of the episode with Entertainment Weekly, Giddish teased that this won’t be the last of Rollins. She said fans can expect to see her again in an episode that is “totally out of the ordinary.”

As for whether her happy ending could be complicated by Rollins coming back into law enforcement, Giddish said, “No, she is happily married. She has a new baby, so she’s got three kids. I think her relationship with her mom is a little better and her relationship with Benson [is] always developing. I think her having such a solid base with Carisi makes a huge difference in the choices that she feels like she’s able to make and how emboldened she feels to take her life into her hands and make some good, still interesting decisions. I don’t think she’s getting into trouble, but it is different now because she’s not a detective in the Special Victims Unit.”

Giddish first appeared on “SVU” as a sexual assault survivor named Kara Bawson in 2007. She returned in 2011 and played Det. Amanda Rollins as a series regular through Season 24, in 2022. She has appeared in 258 episodes of the procedural.